Johannesburg – Rosatom’s nuclear partnership with India has grown into local manufacturing, technology transfer, and industrial jobs.
This is the kind of long-term economic benefit that African countries can count on from their own nuclear programmes.
Some African countries are now factoring nuclear power into long-term plans to meet growing electricity needs, support industrialisation and strengthen energy security, even as their starting points vary.
These African countries are building up the regulatory groundwork and expertise for future programmes, while resource-rich nations are exploring how uranium production could feed into wider energy and industrial ambitions.
Rosatom’s partnership with India offers one example of what such a long-term nuclear relationship can grow into.
At the International Industrial Exhibition INNOPROM. India, held in New Delhi from 9 to 11 September 2026, Rosatom presented the scale of what it can deliver: solutions spanning nuclear power, additive technologies, composite materials, metallurgy, digitalisation and logistics.
Rosatom possesses innovative VVER-1200 reactor technology, which is currently being used to build Africa’s first new nuclear power plant, Egypt’s El-Dabaa.
The plant with four units and a combined capacity of 4,800 MW, is expected to supply roughly 10% of the country’s electricity, turning it into a tangible pillar of national industrial capacity.
The same technology is at work in India at the Kudankulam site: two reactors are already generating electricity reliably, and four more are under way.
Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Anton Alikhanov and Minister of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of India Piyush Goyal were introduced to this project during an official tour of the exhibition.
“India is steadily developing its nuclear power sector and has set an ambitious goal of increasing its nuclear capacity to 100 GW by 2047,” said First Deputy Director General – Director for Development and International Business of Rosatom Kirill Komarov..
“Rosatom is already making a practical contribution to achieving this goal: we are the only foreign company constructing a nuclear power plant in India.
“Two units of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant are operating reliably, while four more are at various stages of implementation.
“Given the scale of India’s ambitions, we are ready to offer our partners a broad range of advanced nuclear solutions, from large-capacity power units to small modular reactors.
“At the same time, our partnership extends far beyond nuclear power and encompasses nuclear medicine, additive technologies, composite materials and logistics.
“I am confident that Russian technologies will contribute to strengthening India’s technological sovereignty.”
The exhibition also highlighted Rosatom’s 3D printing technology, with representatives explaining how additive technologies can cut equipment costs for end users by 40 percent, citing the first localised 3D scanner of Russian design, manufactured in India.
A concrete new deal in materials science was also signed on the sidelines: Giredmet Institute, part of Rosatom’s Chemical Technology Cluster, signed a contract with India’s Alt Metals to establish a pilot production facility for titanium sponge – a metal used in aerospace, shipbuilding, chemical, oil and gas, and medical applications.
The agreement covers the design of an industrial facility with an annual capacity of 1,000 metric tons, laboratory studies, equipment supply, and personnel training, with a view to scaling the technology up to industrial level in India.
